Chapter 5.3 - Learning 3

The interior of the professor's lab is pretty much like you would expect. Tons and tons of various machines, tables, equipment and items that I couldn't even begin to guess the purpose of. I look around while I walk between Nania and Jerilda, Nania is leading us with me in the center and Jerilda covering the rear. The professor leads us into one of the laboratories with a large piece of equipment that reminds me of a magnetic resonance imaging machine. He's been rolling the cube around in his hands to look at it from every angle as we walked to this room.

The professor walks up to the machine and set the cube inside of it on a small shelf surrounded by the machine. With the cube in place, he moves over to a computer terminal and begins to type commands into it. The machine comes to life and begins to make a bit of a racket. I can't see anything visibly happening but one of the monitors in the room lights up and begins to display a stream of information as it begins to build a three-dimensional model of the cube. The professor focuses on the screen as he speaks to us, "This might take a while, you're welcome to go enjoy the orbital while I do this."

I smirk and look around the lab until I find a chair, I walk over to it and very carefully take a seat. My arm still throbbed, but it was tolerable unless I hit it against something. I had learned that the hard way. Once sitting comfortably I look at the professor to address him, "If you don't mind we'll sit right here and wait until your analysis is done."

Like I said before, I don't trust this guy and there was no way in hell I was letting that little black box out of my sight if it was even half as valuable as Nania seemed to think it was. I didn't care if this was going to take days, I wasn't leaving or letting that cube out of my sight. I had no reservations about killing the professor to take it back if necessary. That might seem dark, cruel or even evil. However, do you feel anything when you kill an NPC in a video game? Do you even feel anything when you kill another player in a PvP match of any sort? I didn't think so.

Now, don't misunderstand me. I don't want to kill the professor. In fact, I was hoping I could form a nice friendship with him in case I came across any more Ancient Tech during my adventures. That hope wouldn't stop me from having Nania and Jerilda gun him down if he tried to steal my prize though.

While the professor does his scan thing Celeste speaks into my earpiece, "Captain, a deposit has been made into your GalNet bank account."

Oh? I wonder if it's the first wave of payments from Grizmok for the sale of my [Artificial Personality] units. I lift my left arm, which is where my personal computer is for now, and a hologram of Celeste appears with a smile. I give her a smile in return, "Show me the deposit, Celeste."

She nods and vanishes so a holographic screen showing my banking information appears. My jaw drops as I see my balance. My balance had exploded to over two and a half million credits! I stare at the number in shock for a few minutes before I regain my composure, "Celeste, show me the details of the deposit."

Galactic Network Banks Deposit From: Chaos Rig Deposit Amount: 2,579,375 Note(s): Captain Darkrose's share from the sale of one legally obtained pirate ship, pirate equipment, and bounties associated with the pirates.

Breakdown:

* Ship Sale: 2,250,000

* Equipment Sale: 123,500

Bounties:

* Captain: 100,000

* First Officer: 59,000

* Various Crew: 46,875

I can't help but stare for a little longer, that was a ridiculous amount of money to gain just from getting highjacked by some pirates and kicking their asses! The ship was by far the most valuable item, but the equipment and the bounties were nothing to scoff at, they amounted to a little over three hundred thousand credits by themselves. Considering the money I had gotten only amounted to seventy-five percent of the total value of everything it means I made the guild at least a million, or more, credits by letting them handle everything.

Jerilda walks over to see what I'm staring at and her jaw drops much like mine had when she sees the information on the display, "Holy fuck! Master, you're rich!"

Jerilda's outburst attracts Nania's attention, she looks over at us and asks, "What's going on?"

I look up at Nania, "I got the payment for the sale of the pirate ship, their gear and their bounties, it came out to a little over two and a half million credits. Isn't that a little fast? How could they salvage, move, and sell the ship in a couple of days?"

Nania doesn't seem to be nearly as surprised as Jerilda and I am. She just nods, "That sounds about right. A ship that size and a crew that size. If I had to guess the ship probably cost about four to five million credits to get and outfit, and probably another half million credits or so to outfit all of them. The guild could probably sell the ship for about fifty to sixty percent of that since it's used and we didn't get to really see what condition it was in. So yeah, that amount sounds about right. As for why you got the money so quickly, that's easy. They probably haven't sold the ship yet. I'd guess they got it appraised and paid you out of the guild funds. Same for the gear and items, as for the bounties, those would be easy to turn in at the nearest station or planet. Considering Garbumont was right there..."

I gawk at the sheer amount of money it took just to have a ship that was still considered to be on the small side. Thinking about it I ask a question, scared of what the answer might be, "Nania, how much did my ship cost?"

Nania tilts her head as she thinks, "If I recall, Reginald said it cost somewhere around two million credits originally, plus he spent another two hundred and fifty thousand credits to modify it specifically for you. That doesn't include the one hundred thousand credits worth of MCU's he stored for you."

She refocuses on me and smiles, "Chaos Rig has invested a serious amount of money into you, try not to let us all down alright?"

Shit, I thought I had a lot of money, but relatively speaking I barely had enough to even afford the ship I was currently flying around in. Getting something bigger and better was going to take a small fortune. I couldn't even imagine how many credits capital ships must cost to produce. Tens of millions? Hundreds of millions? Billions? It was unimaginable how much money was flying around out in space just an accident away from being lost.

I dismiss the screen and lean back in the chair to think for a moment, "Well, the money came at a good time. We need to upgrade the CR Spectrum anyways. I want to install a full medical bay and either buy or hire a medical professional to work in it. We also need to buy or recruit additional crew to fill out the ranks on the ship and get it up to at least the minimum crew needed so we can have all the necessary stations manned. The next time we run into pirates I would like to at least be able to fight back."

Jerilda listens in silence as I casually mention buying more slaves to fill out the crew of the ship. Nania nods and offers her opinion, "If we recruit I suggest asking if any guild members want to join us first, and then fill out any remaining positions with slaves for the time being."

I tilt my head questioningly so she continues, "Slaves have the benefit of having no choice but to be loyal. While there are some people we could recruit easily, there's no telling how loyal they may be. There's also the issue of plants, people who get recruited onto a ship then sabotage it for pirates to take it. The plants don't do anything blatantly illegal so they never get criminal records or bounties placed on them."

The more Nania talked the more I disliked the idea of hiring people I didn't know onto my ship. I sit in silence for a while as I think about what I need. First and foremost we needed a medical professional on the ship and to have a fully stocked medical bay for the person to work in. Buying, installing and stocking something like that would probably take a large chunk out of my funds. Not to mention the price of the slave if that's what I ended up doing.

I should also buy another large stock of MCU's to replenish what I had used as well as having more on hand for making higher level items. My level was growing even faster than I had expected it to. I also wanted to see about increasing the shields power on the ship, they had been taken down far too easily in our encounter with the pirates and if we were going to run into more in the future I wanted to be able to last a while before either giving up or winning the fight. I could feel the credits I had just gotten already flooding out of my account.

I slump in my chair and sigh, this was going to be expensive. I glance over at the professor and check on his progress. He's been mumbling to himself the entire time while completely ignoring us and our conversation, his entire focus is on the scanner and the information he's getting about the cube. I look at the screens and try to figure out anything I can from them, but it all looks like gibberish to me. I do recognize some of it as mathematical calculations, but they make calculus look like child's play.

My vision grows blurry as I deliberately unfocus my eyes and let myself sink back into my thoughts. I needed a new plan of action. My main goals, for now, are getting my levels and my skills up. To do that I needed different activities. For my level killing things and blowing shit up seemed to be the most efficient course of action. Killing without blowing things up could potentially earn me a fuck ton of credits. I could use those credits to buy the materials I need to raise my skills. I sigh and close my eyes while letting my head roll back. I couldn't really plan until the cube was finished being analyzed and I could see how much a medical lab and slave doctor will cost me.

----------------------------------------

Eight hours. The professor has been scanning, mumbling, and in general being less than helpful for eight hours. At one point I'd sent Jerilda out to get the three of us something to eat, and now I had her sitting at the ship waiting for deliveries. Since we were wasting so much time in this laboratory I did what anyone with millions of credits would do when bored. I shopped.

Thanks to the power of the in-game internet and bank transfers I have ordered two-hundred and fifty thousand MCU's, that's twenty-five cases. A [Medical Bay] for eighty thousand credits. Medical supplies for another twenty thousand credits. And finished it off with twenty-five thousand credits worth of schematics for cybernetic implants, cybernetic limbs, and various other bits and pieces. I made sure that all the cybernetics were of Suverian design so that they would be compatible with Nania and my physiology. All in all, I spent three hundred and seventy-five thousand credits.

Between Jerilda and the port security, there shouldn't be any problems with getting the items brought to the ship and having the medical bay installed. Unfortunately the medical bay as going to take up one-third of my available cargo space. Then again when compared to losing a limb permanently, I was more than happy to give up a little cargo so the doctor I planned to buy would have a place to work.

Speaking of buying a doctor, I browse through an online catalog of slaves for sale here on the station, but the online catalogs only display a small fraction of the slaves available for sale. It seemed like the slave shops wanted to get you inside so they could try and upsell you on more slaves. I actually needed more slaves. According to Nania, the minimum crew my ship should have to run properly is six people. She recommends that I have a crew of at least ten so people can rotate around. I'm inclined to agree, which means I need at least seven more people on board.

As I ponder what kind of roles I want to look for, aside from a doctor, the professor lets out a scream and backs away from his console. He's been quietly mumbling for hours so the sudden scream is jarring on the nerves. I hop to my feet and rush over to the professor, "What's wrong?!"

The professor completely ignores me as he rushes over to the scanner that the Ancient tech has been sitting in all long. He talks to himself while he stares at it, "Impossible! Impossible! There's no way something like this can exist!"

I grab the professors shoulder with my good hand, erm my only hand, and spin him around to face me, "What are you talking about?"

The professor stares up at me with wide eyes, he's breathing heavily and sweating profusely. He almost looks... scared. He clears his throat and swallows a few times before he speaks in a hoarse voice, "It... it's called 'The Backdoor'."

He clears his throat again as he tries to think of a way to put what he needs to say into words. I wait, not so patiently, for him to continue. He does after a few moments, "When this thing is attached to a scanner of some sort it can scan an appropriate item and then modify it.", he shakes his head and continues, "No no, it's scarier than that! If you put this thing in a medical scanner and then scanned a living being you could use this thing to make a single change to that being on a fundamental level! You could change something as simple as their skin color, or as drastic as their very race!"

Stolen story; please report.

He looks at the small black cube again and then turns to face me once more, "It breaks all known laws and rules of the universe! It must be destroyed!"

I don't really get it, what's so bad about being able to make changes to things? It sounded kind of like the thing that Reggi was looking for, for me, except it wasn't limited to just making changes to schematics. This thing actually sounded even better than what Reggi had spoken about before. I keep my grip on the professor so he can't get away and try something with my cube, "It doesn't sound that bad professor, so it can change things, big deal."

For a moment he forgets his fear of the object and glares at me with pure contempt, "It's not my fault you lack the mental facilities to realize what a danger this thing presents to the universe!" He points at the cube, "If that thing was attached to the scanners of a science vessel and used to scan a star it could make a fundamental change to the core of that star causing any number of disasters! You could change stars into black holes, cause them to go supernova, turn them into neutron stars, or any other of a dozen disasters that could destroy whole solar systems!"

Okay, that does sound pretty bad, "So this thing can just rewrite the universe at will and change whatever it scans?"

The professor shakes his head, "Thankfully the device can only make a single change to any item it scans." He looks at my severed arm, "For example, if placed with a medical scanner it could scan you and restore your missing arm by rewriting reality."

I smile, that's actually pretty awesome, "So it's not all bad, it could be used to remove injuries and diseases and stuff right?"

"W-well... yes, but it could only be used once per person. Going back to you, once you select to change your arm all you could ever change about yourself from then on is your arm. After the first scan you can change it anytime you want! Imagine the horror of someone else getting it and changing your arm to whatever they wanted! They could remove it again, turn it into a cybernetic arm, turn it into a horrible mass of mutated genetics covered in puss and gaping wounds to torture you!", his whole body shudders with revulsion as he speaks.

The professor takes a deep breath and then glares at me, "It must be destroyed! In the wrong hands, this thing could be used to hold the whole of the Pact systems hostage!"

I nod in understanding, of course, I have no intention of destroying this thing. I had no plans to do anything nearly as bad as he was suggesting, but it was giving me a few interesting ideas, "Just to make sure I understand professor. If I was to scan a laser pistol, I could modify something about that pistol correct?"

The professor nods, though he looks a little confused by my line of questioning, "So, I scan a laser pistol, I could do something impossible like turn the laser from a hot blast of light into a freezing blast of light? But if I make that change then I can't change anything else at all about the laser pistol?"

Still looking a little confused the professor nods, "Y-yes you could make a change like that." He grows a little more forceful as he continues, "But even a small change like that breaks the laws of physics! A device that can so easily modify the living world cannot be allowed to exist!"

Alright, this puts me in a bit of a bind. If I refuse to let him destroy it he might tell the Pact Military what this thing can do and I will become the number one most wanted man in the universe. If I kill the professor to cover up what the device can do I'll probably end up as a wanted man still but to a lesser degree. I need to buy some time to think of a way to deal with this issue, "Professor, are you one hundred percent sure it's as bad as you're making it out to be? Are all the scans and everything completed?"

He stops and looks at the displays still spewing out information on the cube and frown, "No, it's only about fifty percent complete."

I can't help but grin, if there's one thing a scientist needs before coming to a conclusion is as many facts as possible, "Maybe it's not nearly as bad as you think it is? Why don't you finish the scanning process and come to a conclusion when you have all of the facts instead of jumping the gun and possibly coming to a faulty conclusion?"

He frowns, the device still clearly terrified him, but I had pointed out a fundamental truth of science, facts. He takes a breath to calm his nerves and nods, "You're right. Coming to a conclusion with only half of the evidence is improper. I apologize for that."

Diplomacy +2

Charisma +1

He shakes himself loose from my grip and goes back to his screens to continue to observe the information. I return to my seat and pull up the holographic screen to buy items off of the orbitals internet. I needed to get my hands on something as a backup plan. I couldn't leave here with the professor knowing about the device. I also couldn't kill the professor, but if he was right about what the device could do then I think the device would provide me with an option I could use to solve the problem.

I browse through the digital market until I find what I am looking for, a handheld medical scanner. If what the professor said was correct then I just needed to connect the device to the scanner and scan him. Once I did that I could modify one thing about the professor, I wanted to modify his memory. If I can erase every bit of his memory involving the device then I shouldn't have any more problems with him. I also wouldn't have to worry about anyone hunting me down for committing a murder. Like I said before, I really don't want to kill the professor. It's a last resort if necessary.

The scanner costs me five-hundred credits, I have it sent to the ship. With the order made I call Jerilda, the professor is once again completely absorbed in his work and isn't likely to pay any attention to what I say, still, I try not to sound obvious about anything as I talk to Jerilda, "Jerilda, I just ordered a small package for the ship. When it arrives unpack it and bring it to me alright?"

"Yes, Master. The medical bay is still being installed and will be a few hours longer. Luckily Androids are installing it so the work is going extremely fast. We've also received all the other shipments. I had the MCU crates stored in the Tech Workshop, and the medical supplies are currently in the cargo bay."

I can't help but smile. Despite technically being my slave Jerilda has been rather helpful and hasn't really done anything to lash out at me for owning her or even demanded her freedom. I'd never really had a slave before so I kind of expected her to lash out or rebel against me in any way she could. I suppose treating her like a human being instead of a piece of property has helped with that, "Good job Jerilda. When the Medical Bay is done being installed and you've received my package rejoin us at the professor's lab."

"Yes, Master. It shouldn't be more than a couple of hours."

----------------------------------------

Another six hours pass in silence, about an hour ago Jerilda returned and gave me the [Medical Scanner] I ordered and I now have it stored in my [Utility Belt]. The professor has continued his observations and mumbling as the scanning has progressed, though it seems something has changed. He turns to look at me and smiles, "It seems like I was somewhat mistaken about how powerful this device is."

He gestures to a section on the screen, I can't make heads or tails of it but it seems to be important. He continues, "According to the scan, the device only has enough built-in memory to store about fifty square feet of information. My hypothesis that you could change a sun completely is dead wrong." He lets out a relieved sigh before he continues, "Still, everything else I said was correct. This device could be used to do terrible things and can easily break the laws of physics! It can rewrite the rules of the universe, even if only in small sections of it."

He looks back at the screen as he continues to speak, "It could cause unimaginable harm even with such a small range. Just imagine if someone used it to turn fifty square feet of this orbitals flooring into explosives! The damage from a detonation like that could be devastating!"

The more this guy talks, the more I like the device and the more ideas I have for it, "Professor, could the same fifty square foot area be turned into something else? Like, say MCU's?"

The professor frowns as he thinks about it and then shrugs, "I don't see why not. You're only changing one property of the material."

He goes silent again as he continues his examination. It's been fourteen hours so far to scan this thing and find out what we have, and I'm committed to keeping it. It doesn't seem like it's the device that Reginald wanted to find for me since it doesn't modify schematics but modifies the item directly. But it would still allow me to make changes and customizations to weapons, armor, and other things that no one else could do. It was an extremely powerful item and I was looking forward to abusing the fuck out of it.

The scans finish a little while later and the professor lets out a sigh, "This device is unbelievable. It can change the very laws of physics, metaphysics, and reality, just to name a few things." He turns and looks at me, "It may not be as dangerous as I initially thought, but it is still extremely dangerous. Despite it being a piece of Ancient Technology I still believe it should be destroyed. The potential power of this device is limitless and it must never fall into the wrong hands."

I look at the little black cube and then back to the professor, "Professor, can you use the device?"

You might be wondering what I am thinking, and I'm happy to tell you. When I found the device I found another item with it, a [Skill Crystal] that was also unidentified. Except, when Jerilda brought me the medical scanner I noticed I could now read the name of the [Skill Crystal]. Like I originally thought, the skill inside of the [Skill Crystal] is directly related to the device, without the skill you cannot use the device. Well, at least I don't think you can. If I am right, then the professor cannot use the device.

The professor walks over and picks up the cube, a small smile on his face, "No, I can't." His smile grows, "No one can use this device without the proper skill!"

He laughs lightly and turns to show me the device, "Without the skill this piece of Ancient Technology is worthless!"

I can't help but grin in return. Jerilda looks at me questioningly but says nothing, only she knows about the [Skill Crystal] because she was with me in the dungeon. I'd completely forgotten to tell Nania about it. I continue to push the professor down this line of thinking, "So, what are the odds of someone finding a way to use this device?"

The professor taps his chin, "The odds of finding a skill crystal containing a skill specifically for a complicated piece of Ancient Technology? I'd say the odds are infinitesimal. As a scientist, I can't say the odds of finding such a skill crystal are zero, but they're so close to zero that it might as well be zero."

He looks rather relieved, time for a final push, "So in reality, that little cube is nothing more than a paperweight right?"

The professor nods, "Yes, that sounds about right."

Deception +6

Diplomacy +4

Charisma +2

I get to my feet and walk over to the professor to pluck the cube out of his hand and hold it up in the light. I let out a dramatic sigh, "Such a shame. All this potential power and it's going to be nothing but a desk ornament."

Deception +2

The professor looks at me and sighs, "Does this mean you won't destroy it?"

I look back at him and shrug, "Would it make any difference one way or the other? Without the proper skill, this thing is worthless. Without this thing the skill is worthless. As you said, the odds of finding both are near zero and become even closer to zero if no one but us knows about this thing. Don't you agree?"

Diplomacy +2

The more I lied to this guy, the easier it got to lie and the higher my [Charisma] got to make him believe my lies. This was excellent. Time to put the icing on the cake, "I'll make you a deal professor. If you hear about anyone asking about a skill crystal related to this device you let me know. I'll immediately come back here and we will destroy this thing together okay? I promise you I don't want this device to fall into the hands of someone unscrupulous any more than you do."

The professor thinks for a moment and then lets out a sigh while nodding, "You have a deal. I should know better than to fear something just because I don't fully understand it. Civilizations have made such mistakes throughout history, destroying knowledge just because they didn't agree with it or didn't understand it. To think I was about to make such a mistake out of baseless fear." He smiles warmly at me, "Thank you for stopping me." His smile fades and he returns to being his old stern self, "But I expect you to keep your word. If I hear about someone with the skill and contact you I expect you to get your smooth talking ass here as fast as you can so we can destroy that thing together!"

Deception +2

Diplomacy +2

Negotiation +2

Charisma +1

I smile, and after storing the cube in my [Utility Belt], hold out my one good hand for him to shake. He initially holds out his right hand, but realizing his mistake quickly changes it to his left so we can shake on our deal. With the deal made the professor shoos us out of his lab, he's got some amazing scan data to go over and can't be bothered with us anymore. Meanwhile, it's been nearly twenty hours since the crew and I had any sleep so we head back to the ship to get some rest.

Jerilda waits until we're on board and turns to face me with a somewhat stern look, "Master, why did you lie to and manipulate that man like that?"

Nania stops and looks at me curiously, "What does she mean?"

I make sure the ships cargo bay is closed before I answer either of them. For Nania's benefit, I pull out the [Skill Crystal]. Her eyes widen when she see's it, "No... you had that the entire time?"

I grin and nod, "Yes. So the professor will never hear about anyone else finding this, because I already have it. It was in the dungeon along with the device." I turn to look at Jerilda, "I only had a few options, and none of them was destroying the cube. I didn't want to kill the professor so I lied to him an manipulated him so that we wouldn't have to worry about the entire Pact Military coming after us to get it. With this device, we can do the impossible. Even just simple things like modifying weapons and armor will give us a huge advantage against any enemies we come across."

I turn to look directly at Nania, "This thing is exactly the kind of thing Reginald wanted to find for me to use to make the guild stronger. With it, we'll be able to make the entire guild stronger. Just imagine the confusion a single laser dealing Cold damage would cause. Or any of the other modifications we can make that I can't even imagine!"

I open my [Utility Belt] and pull out the cube, "This thing is the philosopher's stone, capable of causing transmutation in anything we want."

Diplomacy +3

Charisma +1

The girls think about what I've said for a bit and smiles slowly begin to spread on their faces. I grin in return and gesture deeper into the ship, "Alright. It's time for us to get some rest. When we wake up we need to go get a doctor, and find me a new arm."

I store the device back in my [Utility Belt] and head to my room to get some sleep. Just a little longer and I would decide how to replace my missing limb.

----------------------------------------

In the darkness, something grows...